Military Assistance Advisory Group

The Military Assistance Advisory Group (MAAG) was a group of teams of US military advisors which were sent by President Harry S. Truman to Southeast Asia in September 1950 to help train and aid the militaries of South Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Taiwan against their communist enemies. The MAAG in Vietnam were initially sent in to supervise the use of $10 million worth of US military equipment supplied to the Vietnamese National Army, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent in 740 MAAG advisors in November 1955 to help train the newly-formed ARVN. From September 1950 to September 1953, the MAAG was active in Thailand, and it was also active in Taiwan from 1951 to 1978, in Cambodia from 4 June 1955 to 20 November 1963, and in Laos from 15 December 1955 to 23 July 1962. It played a major role in strengthening the armies of regional US allies in the leadup to the Vietnam War.